Vietnam veterans reach out to injured soldiers at Wheelchair Games

Eugene Tatom has every reason to be bitter. A graduate of Philadelphia's Thomas Edison High School, which suffered the most casualties in the Vietnam War of any high school in the nation, with 54, Tatom stepped on a land mine on the final day of his tour for the Marines.

The 67-year-old has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Instead, Tatom was animated Thursday while winning a silver medal in table tennis at David L. Lawrence Convention Center, enthusiastic in discussing his upcoming events and not shy about voicing his opinion on what it means to participate in the 31st National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

"I come back because of the camaraderie with the fellows who served in Vietnam," Tatom said. "I got to meet guys from Korea and young guys back from Afghanistan and Iraq. They need somebody to talk to. The worst guys that come back from war aren't the ones who get hurt, it's the ones who don't. They need therapy. They're not injured, but they're injured up here.

Tatom touches his temple and continues. "and those are the guys the government should help first, because it's a walking time bomb."

Tatom is living proof how an explosion can change a life forever. He was a five-sport letterman in high school but lost total use of his left leg and most of his right in April 1967 in Vietnam. He did things he can never explain: volunteering for a mission, walking out ahead of his team and then stepping on a land mine. Tatom lost 100 pounds while in a full body cast, so unrecognizable that his own mother walked past his hospital bed.

"Surviving it, you first feel sorry for yourself," Tatom said. "You ask, why me• In the hospital, I had a buddy next to me who had both arms and legs blown off. Then you think to yourself, what do you have to complain about?"

One of Tatom's biggest regrets is that when his unit was wiped out three weeks later, his belongings were destroyed. Not even the clothes he was wearing when injured could be salvaged.

"That ticked me off because I had nothing to show that I was in the Marines," Tatom said. "I would love to have dress blues."

What Tatom has is a positive perception now that he has returned to the games. He participated in events from 1969-79 but became disillusioned by a personal belief that the politics of the Paralympics were passing over minorities and other disabled veterans for more able-bodied athletes.

Tatom credits National Veterans Wheelchair Games director Tom Brown, a former wheelchair basketball opponent, for getting him back to the games. Tatom has been to every national event for the past eight years, and Brown believes that Tatom is a shining example of their mission.

"Part of the philosophy of the games is to get veterans to come to show new guys what to do," Brown said. "I encourage veterans of my era to come back, reach behind them and pull these guys up. You do see that, the older veterans welcoming the new veterans. They're holding them up and telling them that their life is not stopping just because they have a traumatic injury."